PSU Magazine Spring 1989

A master's degree in Engineering Management has also found a receptive home at Portland State University since the fall of 1987. The program's first stu– dent graduated in December. Dundar Kocaoglu , director of PSU's Engineering Management Program (EMP) , has been pleased with the response. He served as head of a similar program at the University of Pittsburgh and is a widely published author on the subject. Kocaoglu projected the program would enroll 30 to 35 students this academic year, but instead it has over 90 students, a waiting list of 30 and has received over a thousand inquiries. Managers or would-be managers employed in Oregon and southern Washington's high technology field are coming to Portland State at night , usually with the blessing and bankroll of the companies they work for. These engineers and scientists are already performing some form of management duties, a com– mon scenario in the industry. In fact , the Engineering Manpower Commission esti– mates that between 67 and 87 percent of engineers take on management duties, spending over two-thirds of their careers as managers. The program , which is first in the state of Oregon , counts among its students technical consultants, product managers, development engineers and systems analysts from Bonneville Power Ad– mjnistration, CH2M Hill , Hyster, Tektronix, NW Natural Gas , CD Medical and many other companies. These graduate students average 32 years in age with seven years of ex– perience in their technical field . The EMP rarely accepts anyone with less than four years' experience because that is the point at whjch opportunities for manage– ment usually arise. "We typically see that between three and seven years after graduation an engineer comes to a decision point," said Kocaoglu. "An engineer is thrust into a project situation where he has to deal not only with the materials he is already familiar with but also people, finances and so forth. He decides whether to pur– sue more deeply his specialty or take the management ladder. We want to come in at that point where the individual has made a conscious decision ." CROSS: I work with people a good percentage of the time but a lot of the important decisions are still related to product and knowing the technology behind the product. That's not to say many EMP students don't do both. The best project or team managers must be up-to-date on the technical side, too. D arrell Cross, the EMP's first graduate this last winter has been a mechanical engineer at Hyster for the last 19 years working his way up the company's corporate ladder. As a beginning engineer in 1970 he became an acoustic specifications expert looking at how to reduce noise level in the company's trucks. Over the years he took on responsibilities as a supervising engineer, then a manager of product plan– ning, and effective Feb. l, Cross was pro– moted to manager of engineering test and research . In his new position he will supervise 60 employees. Cross can't point specifically to his EM degree as the impetus for his promo– tion , but he figures it didn't hurt . He decided to enroll in the program because of the career and self- growth possibilities it offered. "Being an engineer I didn't have a lot of business background," said Cross. "Whenever I would get into a management meeting and they talked about return on investment, return on sales, net price levels and things like that I wasn't real comfortable. Taking some of the MBA type courses associated with the EM program has taken care of that problem." Along with the EMP's core cur– riculum, Cross took advantage of elective courses in upper division mechanical engineering. "You have to stay in touch with the technical aspect of the profes– sion," said Cross. "I work with people a good percentage of the time but a lot of the important decisions are still related to product and knowing the technology behind the product." In his new position Cross doesn't ex– pect to be out working with a sound meter or pressure gauge in hand. But, equipped with noise test results and pressure schedules and, based on past ex– perience and new technologies, he will make judgements on where his division should be going. The EMP at Portland State allows students to deepen their technical exper– tise as Cross did , as well as learn management skills. The program is strongly supported by the Business School . In fact , 40 percent of the courses come from the school, including account– ing, marketing, finance, behavior science and organization theory. "Without this type of support between the engineering and business school a program like this would be extremely difficult," said Kocaoglu . Core classes in the School of Engineering and Applied Science include Engineering Management Concepts and Principles, Management Decisions in Engineering, and Operations Research in Engineering Management. Students may also choose from Software Engineering, Product and Professional Liability, and Quality Control , to name a few. PSU 9